CPS panel: Up to 80 schools could close

Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration could safely close or overhaul as many as 80 schools this year, according to the final report of a commission that just two months ago voiced misgivings about the district's ability to close a large number of schools without major upheaval.

The panel's recommendation — though filled with caveats — provides the mayor and Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett with support as they prepare to file a final list of school closings with the school board by the end of the month.

The Commission on School Utilization, selected by Byrd-Bennett, noted in its interim report in January that the district had never shuttered more than a dozen schools in a single year and questioned whether closing many times that number was possible logistically.

But the advisory panel's chairman, former ComEd executive Frank Clark, said Wednesday that he was satisfied that CPS has made the organizational changes needed to ensure a smooth transition for students forced to move to a new school.

"They have a lot of work to do, but they do seem to have in my judgment both the structure, organization and personnel in place to do this efficiently," Clark said.

The district is working off a preliminary list of 129 schools that could be closed. Clark declined to give a specific number of how many might be closed, but the report indicates that CPS has the capacity to shutter 60 to 70 schools, and that others could have their staff completely replaced, a process known as turnaround, or share space with other schools including privately run charters.

The commission also recommended that the closings be carried out in one year, but it opened the door for spreading them out over two years, which would move away from a five-year moratorium the Emanuel administration had promised after this round of closings.

The report acknowledged the closings won't be easy to pull off and will require money and cooperation from the CTA and police, as well as support from the city's philanthropic and business communities — "not just with money, but with time, energy and expertise."

The commission settled on the number 80 not by looking at how many schools could be closed safely and efficiently, but rather by how many higher-performing schools were available to receive students from the shuttered ones. The panel recommended that all students displaced be moved only to better-performing schools.

The commission made clear that if all 80 schools are closed, some students will have to travel a significant distance to a new school. If only 60 were closed, all displaced students would be able to go to a school within a mile of their old school. If 70 schools were closed, that distance would go up to 11/2 miles.

"Past experience has shown that students and their families are willing to travel longer distances for an increase in the quality of education," the report states. "At the same time, for some children, one mile will be too far to travel given physical obstacles, gang lines, and other barriers."

CPS officials said the commission's report supports its assertion that it has too many underenrolled schools and needs to close a substantial number to address a looming $1billion deficit.

"Their report definitively states that the district does, in fact, have a utilization problem," Byrd-Bennett said in a statement.

The president of the Chicago Teachers Union, which has vigorously fought closings, called the commission's recommendation "outrageous."

"Given CPS' history, there is no way it has the capacity to shut down 13 percent of our entire school district without mass chaos," said CTU President Karen Lewis. "Every school that is closed impacts another in the broader community. That's one more child exposed to Chicago's rising tide of violence."

A final list of school closings was due by law by Dec. 1, but Byrd-Bennett, who took over in October, secured an extension, saying the district needed to get more community input. The commission was assembled to meet with parents and community leaders and issue recommendations on closings. Those meetings and subsequent sessions hosted by the district have been crowded and raucous.

After the commission issued its interim report, Byrd-Bennett insisted the district had the necessary resources to close a large number of schools. Emanuel has also pushed the idea that a significant number of schools need to be closed this year.

The commission's final report lays out what it considers to be higher-performing options for students whose schools have been shut down: The report recommends students either be sent to schools that are rated a level higher than the school being closed (the district sorts its schools into three levels by academic performance) or to a school that is at the same level but performs better on state tests.

By that measure, Clark said the commission determined there were 25,000 available seats for students whose schools are shut down.

The report says the district should "spend the money to do it right" and, while offering no specific dollar amounts, makes a number of recommendations that will cost money. Among them are temporary positions to deal with the transition of students, which retired principals and social workers could fill.

To tackle safety issues, the commission says traffic aides and police patrols should be stationed on the routes students will be taking to new schools. The report also said the district should work with the CTA to alter bus routes to help kids get to school.

The report acknowledged that closings and consolidations will be tough on morale, and from experience said the district "should plan for a 10 percent increase in teacher absence days," necessitating more substitutes.

"The entire city will need to be part of ensuring that the effort is a success," the commission wrote.